


sage wisdom

by graveExcitement



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rigel Black Series - murkybluematter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Rigelverse, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, The Futile Facade, The Rigel Black Chronicles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24088171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graveExcitement/pseuds/graveExcitement
Summary: Rigel Black has too many soulmarks. Along comes Matheus Sousa to add one more.
Comments: 21
Kudos: 125
Collections: Rigel Black Chronicles Appreciation, Rigel Black Exchange Round 1





	sage wisdom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rimenorreason](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rimenorreason/gifts).



> Fanfiction of murkybluematter's Rigel Black Chronicles, written for the Rigel Black Exchange. I hope you enjoy!

Rigel was sick and tired of soulmarks.

She’d never expected to have so _many._ Before Hogwarts, before the ruse, she’d had five. The stag, dog, and wolf circling around her upper left arm, and the lily sprouting on her shoulder above them, represented her parents and uncles. And on her chest, just under her collarbone, was a star, for Archie. She’d had these marks for as long as she could remember. Archie had the same, except he had a sun where she had a star. 

At eleven, she’d known, intellectually, that she might gain more marks, but hadn’t taken it seriously. She hadn’t even expected friends, after all. At most, she’d secretly fantasized about discovering a mentor-mark from Professor Snape so that he’d have to notice her talent. As it turned out, she did gain the coveted mentor-mark, though not until he’d already agreed to teach her. If Snape’s saw-scaled viper curled around her right bicep had been her only new mark, she’d have been satisfied. Instead, an abundance of marks had covered her skin. And while she did treasure the marks signifying her friends, she was less pleased with Riddle’s snake coiling around her forearm; she insisted it was an enemy-mark, but he clearly took it for a mentor-mark. _I already have a mentor, thank you very much,_ she wanted to hiss at it.

She’d made her peace with the fact that she had too many friends to be left alone to brew, as she’d once envisioned. She just wished the proof of those relationships wasn’t stained on her skin. It meant she had to cover up at school and at home. At school, of course, she couldn’t risk anyone discovering her gender, but she also had to avoid anyone seeing her marks. Every mark people knew about was a mark Archie would have to replicate later. Bad enough that her soulmates themselves knew. She still wasn’t sure what she and Archie would do about it once they reclaimed their lives — other than maintain Rigel’s reputation as a prude, she supposed. Even at home, she had to be careful; she had too many marks that ‘Harry’ couldn’t explain.

So when Rigel handed Matheus Sousa a bundle of Salvia Divinorum and felt the tell-tale tingle just above her right hip, her first reaction was to groan. 

“Oh?” Sousa took the salvia with one hand and touched his own hip with the other. “How interesting. A soulmate who has plants in his pocket.” He studied Rigel’s expression. “Unless you would rather forget.”

Rigel winced; she was being quite rude, and it wasn’t his fault that her soulmarks put her at risk. “I just find soulmarks frustrating, sometimes. It’s nothing against you, I promise. There’s no need to pretend we’re not marked. Well,” she hesitated, “not between us, I mean.” In public was another matter, but would it upset him to ask? She looked up at him. 

Sousa gave her a lopsided smile. “You are thinking, if people know, they will think we will cheat together.”

She nodded, relieved. “The press would have a field day,” she said. “I can only imagine what Rita Skeeter would write, especially for a first-meeting marking.” Some marks took time to develop; others showed up right away. There were a number of myths about what that length of time meant for the relationship, and first-meeting marks were viewed as romantic. Rigel’s own parents had had just such a marking, though it had still taken years for Lily to take James seriously. Personally, Rigel thought the myths were just that: myths.

“I understand,” said Sousa. “It is no trouble to me.”

She smiled. “Thanks, Mr. Sousa.”

“Matheus, please,” he said. “We are marked, after all. What kind of mark remains to be seen.”

“Call me Rigel, then,” she said. “Good luck in the first task, Matheus.”

“Good luck to you,” he said with a bow, before turning back towards the castle. ‘What kind of mark’ was a good question. They were competitors in the tournament, but he didn’t seem to have the kind of animosity or competitiveness that would accompany a rival-mark. Probably a friend-mark, she decided. Another to add to her collection.

Only then did she realize she’d forgotten to ask him what he wanted the salvia for. Seer’s Solution, maybe? She would have to ask after the task. For now, she had a snake to speak with.

* * *

It was _her_ magic that had oversaturated the salvia and left Matheus dazed. “Some soulmate you are,” Rigel muttered to herself as she made her way across the grounds towards the forest. The mark, it had turned out, was a sprig of the salvia she’d given her newest soulmate. Now it felt like a brand of guilt.

She found Matheus lying in a bed of clover near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. At her approach, he turned and stretched. “It is my plant soulmate,” he remarked. “You are come to rain green gifts on me?”

Rigel tilted her head, suddenly curious. Plant soulmate? “What form does my mark take?”

Matheus gazed up at her. “Not sure the English name,” he said. “Purple flowers. Is used in potion to keep you awake.”

“Aconite?” she guessed. It was more well-known as an ingredient in Wolfsbane, but he was right; it was also used in Wideye Potion. What that said about their relationship, she wasn’t sure, though unless Matheus was secretly a werewolf — and he couldn’t be, since the first task had taken place under the full moon — its use in Wolfsbane probably wasn’t relevant.

“That sounds right,” he said. “And mine?”

She sighed. “It's the same as the sage I gave you, which is actually what I came to talk about. I think there may have been something wrong with it.”

“The salvia? Good stuff,” he said. “Why don’t you sit? Your neck can’t be comfortable, up there.”

Rigel acquiesced, sitting cross-legged in the clover next to him. “I think it was over-saturated with magic,” she admitted. “It may have made whatever you brewed with it too strong.” 

He inclined his head. “Good stuff. You have more?”

“More?” Rigel sputtered at him. “I’m worried I accidentally poisoned you with the same plant that’s your mark on me! You want _more?_ ” 

“There is no need to worry,” said Matheus, smiling. “I can handle it. I make no mistakes in potions. You are same, yes? They say you are a potioneer.”

“I am, yes,” she said. “Several of my own potions were over-saturated before I noticed the problem. None of them put me out of commission, though. Just what were you trying to brew?”

“Your salvia is very strong, but I make no mistake.” Amusement twinkled in his eyes at her consternated expression.

She pursed her lips. “Did you intentionally take a mind-altering potion during the task?”

“Yes,” he said, unconcerned. 

“But why? You can’t have meant to leave yourself so vulnerable in such a situation,” she said, struggling to understand the sheer recklessness required. 

“It was incredible,” Matheus said fondly. “I have never felt such euphoria.”

“Why did you even enter the tournament? You could have died.” She frowned down at him. 

For the first time, he looked unhappy. “I did not enter.” He met her eyes, his lips twitching upward once more. “You are protective of your soulmate you barely know.”

Was she? She barely knew him, but she didn’t want him to die, and… “Well, I certainly don’t want to _poison_ you,” she said. 

He waved a hand. “Is fine. I make—“

“—no mistake in potions, I know,” she finished for him. “Still, when I heard you were in the Forest, incapacitated… I’m grateful Tahiil brought you out.”

“Am fine,” he said. “You’re the one faced a dragon, I hear.”

“At least I had my wits about me,” Rigel said, raising an eyebrow.

Matheus gazed up at her. “You should lie down,” he said. “Is quite relaxing.”

“Who says I need relaxing?” Other than all of her friends, of course, but he didn’t know them.

He winked. “Everyone could use relaxing,” he said. “But you are very tense.”

She supposed she couldn’t argue against that; she still dreamed of the first task, every now and then. But she saw an opportunity. “Fine,” she said. “ _If_ you relax a little less. Save your euphoria for in between the tasks, not during them.”

Matheus smiled wider. “If my aconite asks me this, who am I to say no?”

Slightly suspicious of his easy acquiescence, Rigel stiffly laid down beside him in the clover. It was remarkably soft. He didn’t seem to expect any further conversation, and she watched the clouds pass overhead. Just when she’d thought he might have fallen asleep, he began to hum a quiet melody. She realized her eyes were starting to close of their own accord.

Her newest soulmate wasn’t so bad.


End file.
